CHINA: Desparation among factory workers at their plight

 This is worthy our attention. What can each of us do to alleviate these dehumanizing labor conditions in China? I suppose religion isn't the first idea for a solution that comes to your mind, but if by "religion" is meant "pure and goodly deeds" and "commendable and seemly conduct", then in this we certainly find a means for accomplishing the betterment of the world we all hope for!

CHINA: Spate of Factory Suicides Exposes Sorry Plight of Workers

IPS ipsnews.net

"I can use the word ‘miserable’ to describe working conditions in China," Xiao Qingshan, a labour rights activist whose nephew worked at Foxconn, told IPS. "There’s a strange phenomenon in China where the people who work the hardest earn the least."

At Foxconn, Xiao said, employees are underpaid, forced to work 12 hour days and routinely subjected to verbal abuse from managers. Xiao, who conducted interviews with Foxconn employees and relatives of suicide victims, said employees were also forced pay an "introduction fee" of up to 20,000 renminbi (about 3,000 U.S. dollars) before starting work at the factory...

[Ji Shao, a labour expert at Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing] said that China’s labour laws are routinely violated and that workers are offered very little protection. Last year during a trip to Dongguan, an industrial city in Guangdong province, Ji and her team found that 80 percent of companies were violating labour laws; many companies refused to sign contracts with workers and were paying a salary below the minimum wage.

Xiao called China’s labour laws 'useless' and said they exist only for show. 'The local governments use them to safeguard and protect local businesses, but no one cares whether the benefits intended for workers are guaranteed,' he said.

Dicta:

The betterment of the world can be accomplished through pure and goodly deeds, through commendable and seemly conduct.

(Bahá'u'lláh, cited in Shoghi Effendi, Advent pp. 24-25)


The fourth principle or teaching of Bahá’u’lláh is the readjustment and equalization of the economic standards of mankind. This deals with the question of human livelihood. It is evident that under present systems and conditions of government the poor are subject to the greatest need and distress while others more fortunate live in luxury and plenty far beyond their actual necessities. This inequality of portion and privilege is one of the deep and vital problems of human society. That there is need of an equalization and apportionment by which all may possess the comforts and privileges of life is evident. The remedy must be legislative readjustment of conditions. The rich too must be merciful to the poor, contributing from willing hearts to their needs without being forced or compelled to do so. The composure of the world will be assured by the establishment of this principle in the religious life of mankind.

('Abdu'l-Bahá, Promulgation 107)

 

CHINA: Desparation among factory workers at their plight

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Keys to strengthening organizational integrity, members' commitment

 
Factors for creating nurturing social environments in everything from organizations to families, with reference to the Human Relations (HR) aspect of company management.

Why We (Shouldn't) Hate HR

Bill Taylor - Harvard Business Review

You can't be special, distinctive, compelling in the marketplace [or, one might say, on the stage of society] unless you create something special, distinctive, compelling in the workplace [i.e., in the internal workings of the organization]. Your strategy is your culture; your culture is your strategy. The most successful companies I know understand that the most important business [or strategy-wise] decisions they make are not what new products they launch or what new markets they enter. What really matters is what new people they let in the door — who they hire — and how they create an environment in which everyone in the organization can share ideas, solve problems, and develop a psychological and emotional stake in the enterprise.

For example, business strategists rave about Cirque du Soleil... But Cirque is every bit as serious about the performers themselves as it is about the logic of the performances. It has developed the most creative and rigorous methodology for recruiting and evaluating new talent I have ever seen, and it is obsessed with making sure its talented recruits understand and embrace how Cirque works. It makes an explicit connection between the people it attracts and the product it delivers, between how it does business and who it invites to become part of the business.

Lyn Heward, Cirque's director of creation, explains it this way: "There are no stars here. The show is the star. That's why our evaluation goes deeper than a talent evaluation. We need to learn about the person behind the artist. How many somersaults you can do is not as important as an open-mindedness to our process, the tough-mindedness to get through the job, and what we call a 'fire to perform.' That's what we're looking for."

Or think about Pixar, the Hollywood hit factory.... "Most companies eventually come around to the idea that people are the most important thing," says Randy Nelson, [former] dean of Pixar University.

Or consider the experience of DaVita, the kidney-dialysis provider. This company's remarkable business turnaround was driven almost exclusively by a transformation of how it approached the people side of the business. Under CEO Kent Thiry, one of the core themes of the culture is that "Everything Speaks." That is, even the most trivial issues — what its treatment facilities look like, how colleagues communicate with one another, small gestures of individual kindness or selfishness — send huge signals about the health of the entire organization. Another theme is "No Brag, Just Fact."... [T]he only thing that matters at DaVita are the day-to-day realities of the quality of care it is delivering and the quality of the culture that delivers the care.

"Unless you figure out, together, how people should behave at work, and create the kind of language and rituals and systems you need to reinforce that behavior, you never get there," Thiry told me. "At DaVita, we do a lot to remind people that despite the crushing realities of their day-to-day professional lives, we want to treat each other differently. We want to care about each other with the same intensity that we care for our patients."

(Emphasis added. Read the full article here.)

Dicta (emphasizing the value of solidarity and togetherness):

One can hardly imagine what a great influence genuine love, truthfulness and purity of motives exert on the souls of men. But these traits cannot be acquired by any [person] unless he makes a daily effort to gain them...

(Shoghi Effendi, Living the Life #1267)

[W]hat pleasure can compare the pleasure of bringing joy and hope to other hearts. The more we make others happy the greater will be our own happiness and the deeper our sense of having served humanity...

(Shoghi Effendi through his secretary, Light (Vol. 1) 45)

 

Keys to strengthening organizational integrity, members' commitment

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An all-powerful charm, an infinite attraction

 For those of you not inclined to aging.

...that which eternally endureth is the Beauty of the True One, for its splendour perisheth not and its glory lasteth for ever; its charm is all-powerful and its attraction infinite. Well is it then with that countenance that reflecteth the splendour of the Light of the Beloved One! The Lord be praised, thou hast been illumined with this Light, hast acquired the pearl of true knowledge...

~ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Selections From the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Page 204

 

An all-powerful charm, an infinite attraction

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Making Values Part of the Business School Curriculum - Imagining the Future of Leadership - Harvard Business Review

 
Values are becoming a question of importance today in the working of society's various institutions.

Making Values Part of the B-School Curriculum - Imagining the Future of Leadership - Harvard Business Review:

"Values guide us to the non-monetary worth and meaning of our work, along with the civic obligations that come with it. Values guide successful leaders in the way they interact and communicate with employees, customers, civil servants, investors and others who surround them. Many would argue that this type of values-based leadership is so important as to be priceless. Yet you almost never read stories about values-based leadership...

"At NYU's Stern School of Business we have embraced the study of meaning, values, and corporate social responsibility through our Social Impact Core. The Social Impact Core is a required, four-course sequence. It is where our undergraduates explore the assumptions and implicit values that underlie markets and other social institutions, like the legal system and government agencies. Students actively explore and discuss how these institutions intersect to create meaning, conflicts, and ethical dilemmas in the lives of consumers, investors, executives, and politicians each day...

"By forcing our students to examine and discuss assumptions, meaning, values, and social responsibility in different contexts across their four years, we hope to produce graduates who are comfortable with complex thought and do not easily fall prey to the illusions of mathematical quantification and oversimplified market ideologies"

 

Making Values Part of the Business School Curriculum - Imagining the Future of Leadership - Harvard Business Review

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Family harmony achieved by making values central to decision-making process

  In problem solving through consultation (or by oneself, through reflection/meditation over a problem), recommended to focus on the relevant spiritual value(s) to apply to the situation.

...while men and women are physically distinct, their spiritual identities are equal—the soul has no gender...

To the extent that government policies and programs recognize that institutional and social change must be accompanied by a transformation of human values, will they be able to effect abiding changes in the dynamics that characterize the allocation of responsibilities, including care-giving, between men and women...

The methods employed [in Bahá'í initiatives for preserving and strengthening the unity of the family and of society] emphasize encouragement, collective decision-making, the building of trust, and a complimentarity —rather than sameness—of roles.

One example of these principles in action is the Barli Development Institute for Rural Women in Indore, India... While the curriculum tackles issues such as alcohol abuse, violence, HIV/AIDS, and exploitation, these are understood as the symptoms rather than the problem itself. The primary aim, then, is to address underlying values and attitudes, which are primary obstacles to establishing more just relationships. The subjects addressed...include: sharing parental responsibilities; the equality of husband and wife; the education of girls; the use of non-adversarial decision-making; and service to the community. Couples who have completed the curriculum have noted a greater sense of unity in the family; a reduction or cessation of physical violence; a greater ability to express their thoughts at home and in public; and an increasing practice of consulting together to resolve family problems.

(“Striving Towards Justice: Transforming the Dynamics of Human Interaction” - Baha'i International Community, 2009. Read the full statement here.)

Leaders of governments and all in authority would be well served in their efforts to solve problems if they would first seek to identify the principles involved and then be guided by them.

(The Universal House of Justice, "The Promise of World Peace" - read the full statement here.)

 

Family harmony achieved by making values central to decision-making process

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Elements of an active mind

Valuing the disciplines of thought-activity and consultation.

Common Core State Standards Initiative

...fusion of the three Rs and four Cs:

• critical thinking and problem solving,
  
• collaboration,
  
• communication and
  
• creativity and innovation

Read the full article here.

Bird's nest Olympic stadium, Beijing

Dictum:

All blessings are divine in origin but none can be compared with this power of intellectual investigation and research which is an eternal gift producing fruits of unending delight. Man is ever partaking of these fruits. All other blessings are temporary; this is an everlasting possession. Even sovereignty has its limitations and overthrow; this is a kingship and dominion which none may usurp or destroy. Briefly; it is an eternal blessing and divine bestowal, the supreme gift of God to man. Therefore you should put forward your most earnest efforts toward the acquisition of sciences and arts. The greater your attainment, the higher your standard in the divine purpose. The man of science is perceiving and endowed with vision whereas he who is ignorant and neglectful of this development is blind. The investigating mind is attentive, alive; the mind callous and indifferent is deaf and dead. A scientific man is a true index and representative of humanity, for through processes of inductive reasoning and research he is informed of all that appertains to humanity, its status, conditions and happenings. He studies the human body politic, understands social problems and weaves the web and texture of civilization. In fact, science may be likened to a mirror wherein the infinite forms and images of existing things are revealed and reflected. It is the very foundation of all individual and national development.

('Abdu'l-Bahá, Foundations 60-61)

Photo source is here.  

Elements of an active mind

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